Suprisingly, despite the wide reach and community of the DAZ Studio software (it’s a free application), there are not many publications to choose from when it comes to learning the software. Of course, there are the DAZ 3D forums where you can get answers to specific queries, but a complete map and guide to using the sofware in the form of a book will be greatly useful.

The book is aimed at those starting out with DAZ Studio up to the level of mostly intermediate users, but more advanced level users will find gems in here also.

The author, Paolo Ciccone is a software engineer and photographer who now lives in Santa Cruz, California.

He is an experienced software developer with 20 years of experience. His field of expertise is developing applications for both Mac OS and Windows that assist computer graphics artists achieve photorealistic results. He founded Prêt-à-3D (www.preta3d.com) in 2010 , a company dedicated to bringing high-end computer graphics tools to the masses.

His Reality software for Poser and DAZ Studio has been used for video game illustration and for the preproduction of Hollywood large budget movies such as Jurassic Park IV and Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

In this session we ask Paolo about:-

– His first contact with DAZ Studio the strengths he noted from it during his early use of the software.

– Whether he immediately saw a gap in the market for the book? Or did it take some time for you to identify some needs of the DAZ Studio community that could be fulfilled?

– We talk about the by-line of the book “Community Experience Distilled”.

– The book cover artwork.

– Paolo is an educator and writer in the 3D Arts world, but this Was Paolo’s first book project. What were some of his early barriers he had to overcome in starting up and getting a writing regime going?

– Who the the book is aimed for?

– The mind-set barrier of being able to pose figures naturally when first starting and how this book overcomes that barrier.

– How the book covers creating new characters with morphs – the ability to start adapting existing characters to create new ones.

– The practical content of the book – customising DAZ studio, finding and installing new content and navigating the studio environment.

– The aspects of lighting covered in two major chapters : lighting a scene and achieving photo realism with the Reality Plugin.

– How the new Dawn figure is covered in the book- what readers can learn about using this figure.